Answers and Users' Help Exchange - updated March 19, 2012

UHE is now closed. For Technical Support from Ableton, please go here: http://www.ableton.com/support
Ableton_David
Posts: 1766
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:31 pm
Location: Ableton
Contact:

Answers and Users' Help Exchange - updated March 19, 2012

Post by Ableton_David » Fri Jun 24, 2011 12:40 pm

Update: March 19, 2012

Hi everyone,

UHE will be kept here as an archived and searchable subforum, but is now closed to new posts.

If you'd like support help directly from Ableton, then please go to http://ableton.com/support. Note that anything involving crashes, glitches, or suspected bugs should be reported directly to tech support.

Best,
David / the Ableton Community Team

Angstrom
Posts: 14921
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Angstrom » Wed Jun 29, 2011 2:43 pm

David,
I hope there is more to come for Answers as currently it doesn't hit the target.
I've dropped by there a couple of times intending to answer a few questions, but I find the interface limited, confusing and not very powerful.

Examples:

search for Answers to "ableton sound quality"
result ... um , changing the metronome sound?
Now, even worse, try searching for "why is my guitar quiet"

result. OMFG ... Really ? Somebody thought that was a good outcome.

suggestion : At least make all searches Boolean AND, not OR. The default for search users is boolean AND, only programmers who are not focused on user outcomes
use the default OR in a query. Users usually intend AND, many users now expect some parsing of the query intent. EG: "did you mean : why is my guitar input volume quiet" , here are some related topics- setting up your audio hardware, Hi-Z inputs for guitar, How impedance can make signals quiet, ... Etc.


I'm too busy with work right now to detail further issues in the implementation of Answers, but somebody in the web department needs to understand that as specifications for comprehensive Knowledgebases go this barely hits one target.

It is not a good go. It hurts me.

AceLuby
Posts: 1124
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2009 1:40 pm
Location: Mpls, MN
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by AceLuby » Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:14 pm

I'm going to have to agree w/ Angstrom on this one, who designed this? The search function is almost useless. Why have a search button if it searches automatically? The front page UI design looks like craigslist posts, plus you have no idea when the question was asked and the number of answers (in light grey) blends in w/ the background (white). Also, why is the default number of questions 8? How many questions do you think will actually get answered if 8 questions later it is off the front page?

These are serious design flaws that will hamper its use and usefulness, unless of course that is the point.
levimoniz wrote:yes i'm a hypocrite and not intelligent

ollyb303
Posts: 2666
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:49 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by ollyb303 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:12 pm

I've also stopped by to try and help out, but abandoned my effort because I thought it was too flaky.

The UI/UX is terrible and the functionality is poor. Angstrom has pretty much summed it up.

Sticking to the forum for now.
.:O:B:1:.
ob1techno.com

Tone Deft
Posts: 24152
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:19 pm

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Tone Deft » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:35 am

signed.
In my life
Why do I smile
At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?
-Moz

rcpunker
Posts: 434
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:36 pm

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by rcpunker » Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:04 pm

Is Answers gonna be on Google search?

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by jestermgee » Fri Jul 01, 2011 11:28 pm

With some tweaking it should be a good resource.

I would like to suggest a change for the colour of the test for the TITLE of a question. I am a bit colour blind and my screen resolution is 1920x1080 which makes text small and hard to read as it is. The orangy colour is a bit too hard to read. If it could be BOLD then that would be easier.

Ableton_David
Posts: 1766
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:31 pm
Location: Ableton
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Ableton_David » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:17 pm

Hi everyone - thanks for your feedback. Please make sure that you also use the link to give feedback on Answers itself.

To address the list of latest posts, that's simply to help you get going - Answers works better if you use the search function and then browse posts and related tags that you're interested in.

Angstrom
Posts: 14921
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:22 pm
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Angstrom » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:27 pm

Ableton_David wrote:Answers works better if you use the search function and then browse posts and related tags that you're interested in.

No it doesn't

try this search - "how do I connect a guitar"
http://www.ableton.com/support?query=ho ... t+a+guitar

Look at the list of answers and there's nothing remotely relevant to the query.
Now look at the bold-ed text in the results list and consider their relevance to the query.
The bolded text for this guitar based query reads : automated, automated dot, appears, apple, appears, away, able, audio/video... etc.

No hint of any tags, and certainly nothing relevant to connecting a guitar, which is odd because ...
there is an 'answer' specifically titled "How do I connect a guitar to ableton?", yet that does not even show up on the list of results for that query.

Answers is not good at all.

http://www.ableton.com/answers/how-do-i ... have-a-mac

Matt_Quinn
Posts: 521
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 2:47 pm

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Matt_Quinn » Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:23 pm

+1 on really disliking Answers so far.


Not sure what exactly is wrong with the User's help forum as it stands, it has always worked well for me. Answers is a fine project for Ableton to get working on, but not sure why it has to mean the end of the User's Help Exchange.

$0.02
the_planet wrote:Trap music is not supported in the current version.

ollyb303
Posts: 2666
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:49 pm
Location: Bristol, UK
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by ollyb303 » Wed Jul 06, 2011 5:02 pm

Matt_Quinn wrote: Not sure what exactly is wrong with the User's help forum as it stands, it has always worked well for me. Answers is a fine project for Ableton to get working on, but not sure why it has to mean the end of the User's Help Exchange.
I agree: it would be a travesty to ditch the UHE with Answers in it's current state.

I do think that with some serious work on the UI/UX, and vastly improved search functionality, Answers could be more useful than UHE, but until that happens, I really hope we can keep it!
.:O:B:1:.
ob1techno.com

H20nly
Posts: 16057
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:15 pm
Location: The Wild West

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by H20nly » Wed Jul 06, 2011 7:03 pm

Angstrom wrote:
Ableton_David wrote:Answers works better if you use the search function and then browse posts and related tags that you're interested in.

No it doesn't

try this search - "how do I connect a guitar"
http://www.ableton.com/support?query=ho ... t+a+guitar

Look at the list of answers and there's nothing remotely relevant to the query.
Now look at the bold-ed text in the results list and consider their relevance to the query.
The bolded text for this guitar based query reads : automated, automated dot, appears, apple, appears, away, able, audio/video... etc.

No hint of any tags, and certainly nothing relevant to connecting a guitar, which is odd because ...
there is an 'answer' specifically titled "How do I connect a guitar to ableton?", yet that does not even show up on the list of results for that query.

Answers is not good at all.

http://www.ableton.com/answers/how-do-i ... have-a-mac
the link Angstrom posts here actually does bring up a lot of the weaknesses. besides the fact that you can hardly find it (as he pointed out) the first answer is kind of biased and doesn't really answer the question other than saying "buy gear. RME and Apogee make great gear". yet this is voted as the top answer even over a video tutorial. :cry:

if that's the best answer to the question then perhaps it shouldn't be found.

longjohns
Posts: 9088
Joined: Mon Dec 22, 2003 3:42 pm
Location: seattle

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by longjohns » Thu Jul 07, 2011 5:01 am

i can't offer much feedback from the viewpoint of a question asker..

but from the viewpoint of a question answerer, i could only stand to look at it once or twice.

1) the screen has only about 7-8 questions. the rest is filled with ableton stuff, links, pictures and etc. and space wasted on looks.

2) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!! (should have been #1 haha) need to click "more" an infinite # of times to see all the questions.. and if I click on one to read it, all I can seem to do in terms of going back to the list, is to hit "back" on the browser, which brings me to the first 7-8 questions! now i have to hit "more" an infinite # of times to try to get back to where I was in the questions list

Warrior Bob
Posts: 841
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:10 pm
Location: Central Coast, California
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Warrior Bob » Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:42 am

ollyb303 wrote:I do think that with some serious work on the UI/UX, and vastly improved search functionality, Answers could be more useful than UHE, but until that happens, I really hope we can keep it!
I'm currently a moderator on Stack Exchange's audio (and now video) site which uses a format similar to Answers. It has been simply amazing for me as far as help, and I'm really excited that Ableton is embracing a technological solution in a similar vein. One of the biggest problems with UHE is that it's hard to find "answered" questions so it's more of a forum and less of a knowledge base.

But what you've said is true: in its current state, the UHE subforum is more attractive to users because it "feels" easier to use - there are more items listed on the screen, you don't have to click "more" several times, and it uses a familiar forum format that many people are already used to. There are lots of advantages to the Q&A format (such as the follow feature, which is very handy!) but it'll have to feel like something natural to use if people are really going to adopt it.

I can't put my finger on what exactly it is that I think feels kind of awkward about Answers. If I can figure it out, I'll submit it as feedback. Besides that though, it's great. Huge thanks to everyone working on it.

In the meantime, I'd recommend that the talented Ableton developers do some serious user profiling and statistics. This kind of new-format site will live or die based on whether people decide to use it, and it'll be important to know why. We're facing the same getting-people-to-use-it problem on Stack Exchange, and the SE team has done a lot to figure out ways to make people interested and make the site really valuable.

The other big Q&A site I know of is Quora, and between those two I suspect there's a lot to learn from (I haven't used Quora yet myself).

Hope this is helpful - thanks again to all the Ableton staff working hard to make this happen.

Ableton_David
Posts: 1766
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:31 pm
Location: Ableton
Contact:

Re: Moving Forward - Answers and Users' Help Exchange

Post by Ableton_David » Sat Jul 30, 2011 6:57 pm

Brief update on Answers here. Please go back and try searching Answers again, as we've made significant improvements to the algorithm there. If you find that a search is not returning the right results (as has been documented previously on this thread), then please submit that as feedback, including that terms that you used in the search.

For the time being, we'll delay closing Users' Help Exchange. Please do try Answers again, in the meantime.

Locked